Sundry Works

Sundry Works Help · Home

What's due and what's unfinished

Where the app opens: what to carry on with, what needs you, what's coming up.

What it's for

Home is where the app opens, and it answers the question you have when you sit down: what do I do now? At the top is the painting you were last working on, with what is left on it and a button that opens it straight onto the step it has got to. Beside that, Posts: what is going out, with any that have stopped and need you first, and what has just gone out - press one to open its painting's Post page - and the way to the replies people have left. Under those, the same page answers three more questions without you going looking: what's coming up, what's still unfinished, and how much you've been making. It gathers the Calendar, your Lists, and your paintings into five cards, and every line on it is a shortcut into the page that owns it.

It doesn't hold anything of its own. Everything on it is read from the other tabs, so it can never disagree with them, and there is nothing on it you can break.

If you'd rather not have it

Home is the first place in the rail, and the app opens on it. It used to be called the Overview, and the app used to open on Paintings. If you would rather not have it at all, go to Settings, find the "Optional tabs" card on its first page, and untick Home, and it disappears straight away - the app then opens on Paintings.

Switching it off deletes nothing - your calendar, lists and paintings are all untouched, because Home never stored anything of its own. Tick it again whenever you want it back.

At a glance

Four numbers in one strip across the top left:

By category

Underneath those four numbers is a count of your paintings in each category - Underwood, Steamfolk, Modi Cats, Steamscapes, and any others you've set up - each in a small box of its own, side by side. They're in the same order as on the Paintings tab, so the two read the same way, and a category you've created but not filed anything under yet shows a nought rather than vanishing.

Paintings you haven't filed anywhere are counted last as "No category", in a box with a dashed edge. If a painting is still filed under a category you've since renamed or removed, that category stays on the end so its count isn't quietly lost.

The whole block only appears once you have categories in play. Set them up on the Paintings tab under "Edit categories".

How much you've made

Under the categories is a count of your paintings over time. Four numbers first, in one strip: how many this month, how many this year, how many in the last twelve months, and your best month ever, with the month named underneath it.

Then two runs of columns, oldest on the left, with the count on top of each. The first is month by month for the last year, ending on this month, which is shaded. Months where you finished nothing still keep their place - a quiet month is part of the picture. The second is year by year, from the first year you painted in up to this one, and a quiet year keeps its place too. Each run is drawn against its own busiest column, so the tallest column means "the most in this run", not the most on the card.

It counts on the date the painting is signed - the month and year you fill in on the Paintings tab - not the day you typed it into the app. So a piece finished in March and catalogued in June is counted in March. And if you type up years of old work in one sitting, it still spreads across the years you actually painted it.

A painting dated only to its year is counted in that year, but in no month. So the two runs of columns can differ by a painting or two. That's on purpose - guessing at a month would file the work in the wrong one.

A painting with no date on it isn't counted at all. If you have any, a line at the foot of the card says how many, and takes you to the Paintings tab to fill them in.

Up next

The next five things on your calendar, soonest first, each with its kind (Show, Deadline, Event, Other) and its countdown. Anything inside a week is highlighted, the same as on the Calendar tab itself. Click any of them to go to the Calendar.

Still to do

Every list that still has items left on it, with how far along it is ("4 of 12 done") and the next few outstanding items spelled out underneath, so you can see what's actually left without opening it. Section headings are left out of that preview - the items under them say more.

Click a list and it opens on the Lists tab, ready to tick off.

Needs attention

Every painting that still has work on it. Each row is led by a small picture of the work - a plain framed square if you haven't added an image yet - and carries the same nine progress ticks as the Paintings tab - Image, Details, Caption, Story, Social, Card, Papers, Post, Reel - along with the painting's details and how far along it is, so you can see the whole state of a piece without opening it. Click one and it opens on the Paintings tab, loaded and ready.

The order puts the most urgent first: anything missing an essential (its image, its details, or a story) rises to the top, then whatever has most left to do. Eight are shown at a time, with a link to the rest on the Paintings tab.

A painting drops off this list the moment it's finished - and an unsold one counts as finished without a certificate, since that isn't due until it sells.

The rest of the Help

Start here

Your catalogue

Making things from a painting

Running the business

Connections and setup

Try it on one of your own paintings

Sundry Works is a catalogue for painters that also drafts the story, the card, the certificate and the reel from one photograph of the painting.

See Sundry Works

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